Raiding the Vault
by louie-fly
Summary: "Beneath Venus, evil stirs" Now, the time has come for it's true secrets to be uncovered. The fearless Oz Raiders are taking their best six into the planet, ready to take down the god of the Time Conflux Atheon. Can they conquer him and be the first to break the vault, or will they too become lost in time?


**Raiding the Vault**

 **By: Victoria Liu-Pearson  
© All Rights reserved.  
**

 **Chapter 1**

He was crouched in perfect position, motionless behind green shrubs. His eyes remained locked on the large heavyset doors across from him. The light was slowly beginning to fade away as day crept into night and a cool breeze swept past. For the last couple of weeks now he'd spent hours camped in here ready, waiting, watching and monitoring the situation. Every few minutes the Vex appeared from their hidden caves to patrol the area eliminating any potential threat to their space.

'There you are.' He mumbled spotting the intended target, one of the bigger Vex enemies also known as a Praetorian. These guys are the largest of the Vex Minotaurs and more lethal. Armed with a torch hammer able to deliver devastating void splash damage and a melee attack to easily dispose on un-suspecting victims. The Praetorian made quick clumsy steps towards the first plate making one circle then turning back the way it came following a secondary path to the next and then the last plate directly opposite the first it was also flanked by four Harpies, three Hobgoblins and a couple of regular goblins. With their brief surveying of the area complete the group went back to their hidden cave. The hunter remained motionless as he watched them while his finger rested on the trigger of his every handy Ice Breaker. This time he was going to stir the Vex see how they reacted. Nobody had ever dared to come to this area since the discovery was made. All of them too afraid of what they could face and, according to the speaker nobody was ready to take on the evil that lay below the planet. The Praetorian suddenly came to a halt it didn't move just stood still while its fellow companions kept on walking the hunter immediately knew something was up, because of all the times he'd been here to observe them the Praetorian had never stopped short. It turned itself to look left and right of its' surroundings before facing forwards towards the hunter's hidden position and raised its torch hammer.

'Shit.' The hunter said, he didn't know how but he'd been found out. The Praetorian did not hesitate for a second firing straight at the hunter, he dived immediately to his left just as the impact of the fire thundered into the shrubs sending the splash damage hurling in different directions. Landing in a sprawling heap not too far the hunter grabbed hold of his sniper again but a quick glance back at the Praetorian confirmed he was in its sights for another shot.

'Get down!' someone suddenly yelled the hunter turned his head just for a brief second as two seeker sparrows flew right above his head. One of the occupants' leapt off the vehicle catching the attention of the Praetorian causing it to turn its torch hammer on the new additions firing again but missed, only seconds later did it disintegrate into pieces from a purple void blast. The hunter slowly got back to his feet dusting off the debris and dirt off his body.

'Looks like we just got to you in time Ninja!' another voice spoke he rolled his eyes glancing at the second occupant sitting on their sparrow with a smirk on their face.

'I would have handled that just fine Andon if you two hadn't interrupted.' The hunter now known as Ninja said he was a little irritated while the other hunter named Andon chuckled sitting more upright on his sparrow he shrugged his shoulders.

'Hey don't blame me I got brought along just in case.' He answered Ninja folded his arms with one eyebrow raised.

'Always going off being the top dog again I see.' The third occupant remarked sarcasm clear in their words both hunters turned watching as the young warlock named Skinny approached and stopped between them with hands on hips giving Ninja a disapproving stare.

'You should know better.' She remarked he snorted.

'I don't need anyone to baby sit me I can handle it on my own.' He replied agitated.

'Not with that kind of attitude.' She answered.

'Look why don't you two just go back to whatever it is you were doing and let me do my job.' Ninja said.

'We came here to help you.' She snapped back Andon shook his head these two are always arguing about something even if it is a trivial matter and it had become far too common.

'Guys.' Andon hissed though his plea fell on deaf ears as the pair kept squabbling.

'I never asked or wanted anyone to help. I was doing perfectly fine.' Ninja answered.

'Sure you looked just fine nearly getting flattened by that Praetorian just a few minutes ago. Heaven forbid what the scene could have looked like if we didn't get here in time.' Skinny added.

'GUYS!' Andon shouted this time.

'What?'

Void damage attacks hurled towards and spluttered all around them, the impact of the force knocked Andon off his sparrow forcing the trio to make a run for cover behind a pile of solid rocks which momentarily kept the firing at bay.

'Ok grenades at the ready.' Ninja said Andon and Skinny nodded with grenades loaded and ready to go the trio looked at one another, they didn't need to say anything, in one swift movement they leapt up spun around throwing the grenades at the in-coming Vex and quickly called the sparrows fleeing the area.

'Phew that was a close.' Andon remarked when they arrived back at their three separate ships.

'Too close but we got out of there without any casualties at least.' Skinny answered giving Ninja a look he just rolled his eyes.

'Maybe if you two didn't turn up to set them off I could still be doing my job,' he said.

'Give it a rest, you two I think that's enough. You haven't gotten along in ages. Everyone is starting to get tired of your little arguments.' Andon replied.

'Why can't you two just go along properly anyway?' he added. Silence. Andon realized he had hit a bit of a sore spot and while nobody in their clan Oz Raiders ever spoke about it they all knew the back-story.

'Well.' Skinny said after a few more minutes.

'I'll leave you two to do whatever it is you want and see you around.' She added and without as much as giving them a chance to reply she turned on her heels walking up the ramp of her own ship. Andon shook his head quietly swearing under his breath and he knew he wasn't the only one sick and tired of these two having off moments. Glancing sideways at Ninja he noticed his friend looked to be lost in thought with a cheeky smirk he quietly stepped up behind Ninja and whacked him across the head.

'What the hell!' Ninja exclaimed Andon burst out laughing.

'What you do that for?'

'It had to be done man, you were obviously away with the fairies.' Andon said.

'Shut up.' Ninja answered he wasn't in the least impressed he didn't need or want any distractions.

'So what you going to do now?'

'Head back I suppose there's nothing much we can do here now anyway. Let those bastards settle back before we try again,' Ninja replied Andon raised his eyebrows.

'Try again? What are you talking about?' he asked Ninja just smiled mysteriously.

'You'll find out soon.' He too climbed into his own ship and set off back to earth; Andon shook his head he wasn't sure what was being planned but he hoped Ninja wasn't about to take them on some wild goose chase.


End file.
